Trail Committee Meeting Summary

Great Summary by CPOA President, Butch Kronlund. BTW, as the season of “doings” and events in Big Sur approaches, I am getting more and more requests to post information on upcoming events, which I am happy to do. In order to cover all that my readers are interested in, it will soon be time to move these event notices to the announcement page, as I have had to do in the past.

“Many of you have requested to be kept informed of the progress of developments on the California Coastal Trail planning process. Here’s a re-cap of the most recent meeting. As this process moves forward, CPOA will issue further updates.

On Saturday March 16th, State Senator Bill Monning, in partnership with the Big Sur, Coast Property Owners Association, conducted a public meeting at the Pfeiffer Big Sur Lodge Conference Center. The purpose of the meeting was to gauge local support for a process that allows for, and relies heavily on, Big Sur residents and property owners, in conjunction with Agency land owners, the responsibility of creating the alignment of the Big Sur segment of the mandated California Coastal Trail. Included in the process document are conditions affecting the creation of the trail such as establishing who maintains it, polices it and monitors it for environmental degradation from over use. The scoping area that the plan covers runs from the Carmel River to the north, down to San Carpoforo Creek to the south and east to the prominent ridges that define the Big Sur planning area.

67 residents and and property owners ranging from the South Coast of Big Sur through to the Carmel Highlands engaged in a spirited question and answer session throughout an informative power point presentation. The presentation outlined the legislative history of the California Coastal Trail enactment as well as highlights of the process document which will serve as a template for community involvement in the trail’s creation. Near the conclusion of the meeting, a show of hands was solicited and the response was 90% of those attending were in support of the community based process, 0% were against and 10% felt they needed more time to digest what they had learned or to dig further into the issue. To download the completed process document with accompanying maps and organizational chart, click on the following link or type tinyurl.com/c2sqn75 into the address bar of your web browser and hit enter.

Several long time locals spoke from the heart regarding the need for our community to stay engaged and when given the choice, strive to shape the outcomes that challenge us as stewards of our lands. Alan Purlmutter said it best when he provided the bottom line to the CCT issue. And I paraphrase, “The state legislature has passed a law that there will be a coastal trail running the length of California, going through Big Sur. The question before us is not whether there will be a segment of the trail going through Big Sur. The question is whether we want a contractor with no ties to Big Sur designing the trail or if we want to do the job ourselves”.

The last words on this subject came from Marty Hartman, a 60 year resident of Big Sur who eloquently spoke of her love of this place and our joint responsibility in protecting and nurturing this precious resource.

Thanks go to the CCT working group for devoting so much time and energy to creating a process for local involvement and to our elected representative State Senator Bill Monning for his unflagging support in seeing a local planning effort get traction.

Not to be forgotten, thank you Alan and Marty for breaking this issue down to what is really important which is Big Sur people exerting their right to self-determination, knowing it is our responsibility to protect and nurture this place we are so lucky to call home.

Butch Kronlund
CPOA”

Well done, all!